Hansen: Pitching means Wildcats have puncher's chance

The architectural design team was about as subtle as a Katiyana Mauga home run; when you walk through the front door, you are greeted by the UA’s eight NCAA championship trophies.

Since the count reached eight in 2007, there has been a long and unexpected pause. Mike Candrea is still working on No. 9, still working on getting a pitcher who can win The Biggest Games, treating his 30th year at Arizona with the same application he debuted in 1986: win and advance.

The Wildcats are taking tenuous steps toward their first College World Series appearance since 2010. Saturday’s 5-1 victory over Minnesota put the Arizona Wildcats into Sunday’s NCAA regional championship game, but as the 12th overall seed, the line on Arizona is that it doesn’t have the pitching to be much more than super regional fodder.

It wouldn’t be recommended to be the coach who underestimates Candrea. As he said last week: “I enjoy making out our lineup.”

From No. 1 through No. 8, Arizona is possibly as good as it has ever been, or close. The Wildcats are No. 4 nationally in batting average (.358), No. 5 in home runs (101) and No. 7 in runs scored.

But Saturday against Minnesota, the Wildcats won with pitching, defense and a timely hit or two. It was like the good old days at Hillenbrand Stadium, as freshman pitcher Trish Parks used a 70 mph fastball – that’s softball’s equivalent of a 98 mph baseball heater – to overpower the Golden Gophers.

After 57 games, Parks and sophomore Michelle Floyd are 33-17 with a cumulative ERA of a bit south of 4.00, which is about 10 victories and 1½ runs per game shy of what most consider serious national title stuff.

Both are sharing the load for the first time, and that’s not good timing. Even Arizona’s national pitchers of the year, Nancy Evans and Jennie Finch, needed a year to break in, paired with a more veteran pitcher.

Evans started just 16 games as a 1994 freshman; Finch had a 2.08 ERA as a 1999 freshman; thereafter she was never “worse” than 0.97.

It’s a testament to UA pitching coach Stacy Iveson that Parks and Floyd have improved so much over the last three months, especially after junior Nancy Bowling, expected to be the ace of the staff, pitched just 19 innings. Bowling has been sidelined by personal issues.

The story of this UA softball team may not be that it is one win shy of the NCAA super regional, but rather that it is in position to get that far, and that it finished No.  3 in the powerful Pac-12.

It’s not that Candrea took a year or two away from recruiting. Bowling and Floyd were treasured recruits. Bowling was offered scholarships by Oregon, Florida and UCLA. Floyd declined chances to pitch for Stanford and Tennessee.

Nor is the coach patiently waiting for his young pitchers to develop. Next year, Arizona will debut the 2014 high school Player of the Year, Taylor McQuillin of Mission Viejo, California, who is 26-0 this season and probably the most highly regarded pitcher to sign at Arizona in a decade or two.

She has 99 career victories, one shy of Southern California’s career record. She also has won 31 consecutive games, also one shy of the SoCal record.

Beyond that, junior-to-be Danielle O’Toole, who was 45-17 in two seasons at San Diego State, is redshirting this season at Arizona. She has a career ERA of 1.86 in 411 college innings. The UA’s long-term pitching situation is now as promising as any team in the country.

“We’ll bring in two really good pitchers,” Candrea said. “The difference you’ll see is the command and the movement they have. They don’t throw anything that’s straight.”

In the short term, Arizona needs to win another game at Hillenbrand and then take it inning by inning. On Saturday, the Wildcats took advantage of their healthy hitting reputation, and that never hurts.

Tied at 1 in the third with two runners aboard, Big Ten Pitcher of the Year Sara Groenewegen seemed reluctant to give Arizona’s Nos. 3-4 hitters, Mauga and Chelsea Goodacre, a pitch to hit.

No surprise there. Mauga and Goodacre have combined for 49 home runs and are the most feared middle-of-the-lineup tandem in the country.

The ever-careful Groenewegen walked both, which gave Arizona a 2-1 lead, and the game forever changed.

This time, the Wildcats didn’t need to play Home Run Derby to win an important game. This time, a few walks, some good defense and the top pitching performance of Parks’ young college career were good enough.

No one is clearing space on Arizona’s trophy shelf, but stick around. The season might last another week or two.